How about a one month update on the Home Run Derby… ask and you shall receive.

Remember that the season is a marathon, not a race. So even though the Orioles and Nationals are 18-9 and your team is in last place in the Derby or Fantasy, don’t you worry. There is plenty of baseball left.

That is unless you are racing against Billy Hamilton. That dude is straight up fast. He currently is sporting 31 stolen bases with 38 hits in Single-A for the Cincinnati Reds. The SS prospect is no sloth on the base paths. Last season he had 103 stolen bases. That’s Henderson-esque. Here’s some amazing quotes/stats from the baseball experts:

Billy Hamilton has reached on eight infield singles. He has been thrown out by infielders 14 times. When Billy Hamilton hits the ball on the ground to an infielder, and the infielder fields the ball cleanly, Billy Hamilton is hitting .364.

AND

Billy Hamilton scored the walk-off run on April 20 on a sacrifice fly. To the second baseman.

Look out Dee Gordon, there may be a new fastest man in town in the next year or two (I really want to see a 100SB season… soon).

Now back to the Derby:
Just a reminder that the 2012 Home Run Derby has six checkpoints this year. The team hitting the most homers in the month will take home the monthly title. You can check out the monthly standings here.

The first monthly crown goes to a familiar team, the Kettle Poppers. He lead after the first two days in 2011 and was in 3rd place after the month of May. His team seems to be a sprinter because he finished in 40th last season. No thanks to Adam Dunn who has almost as many HR in the past month than he did all season last year (8 to 11). Hopefully Kettle Poppers fine tuned his machine in the offseason and will hold up for the long run to finish in the Top-10 of 2012.

Another familiar team name atop the leader board, Swing and a Mrs. is in second place. She was the leader at the end of July in 2010 but has failed to crack the final Top-10 the past two seasons. The top 2 teams after April have two things in common: Miguel Cabrera and Matt Kemp. Both are leading their respective groups in home runs in the early season of 2012. This could be the year we have a female manager (there are 12 this season) at the top of our leader board in October. Keep an eye on this team.

Lastly, our manager from last season that started in Last for the month of April finished in THIRD last month! Formerly Pick Me Out A Winner Bobby, If you build it, They will go deep (both names are great movie references) managed to hit 28 homers last month. I’m pretty sure that’s 24 more than his team had last April. This is great example to never give up kids. If J.Fo can stick with it and prove he knows homers, everyone can pick a batch of players and have a chance at leading our Derby. Don’t quit after one lousy season in the derby… keep playing (there that will be my only pitch/begging to keep participating in this contest).

Also, a friendly reminder to keep an eye on that disabled list at the bottom of the standings page. If any of your players are on that list for 20 days, you can trade him in for a new bat (as long as you haven’t used your 1-trade of the season). I’ll send out reminders for trade eligible players, but don’t hesitate to contact me first.